Something weird just happened at the SEC. Sam Waldon—yeah, the same guy who spearheaded Gensler's aggressive enforcement campaign against major players like Coinbase, Ripple, and a certain leading exchange—just got promoted to Acting Director of Enforcement under Trump's supposedly pro-crypto administration.

Wait, what?

This is the same enforcer who built his reputation dismantling crypto companies through regulatory warfare. Now he's running the show at an SEC that claims it wants to play nice with the industry. The irony is almost too thick to cut through.

Maybe there's some 4D chess happening here—keep your enemies closer and all that. Or maybe the new regime thinks his enforcement expertise is exactly what's needed to clean up genuine bad actors while sparing legitimate projects. Hard to say.

But if you were hoping for a clean break from the Gensler era? This appointment suggests the transition might be a lot messier—and more nuanced—than anyone expected. The enforcement machinery doesn't just disappear overnight, even when the rhetoric changes.